At Least 'As Fast As' Hamilton: Marko Addresses Horner's Comments About Russell
F1Sunday, 29 September 2024 at 12:23
Helmut Marko reacted to Christian Horner's comments about considering George Russell for a seat in Red Bull in the near future.
George Russell is currently a Mercedes F1 driver, but his contract expires at the end of the next season (2025). His team principal, Toto Wolff, said he would like to continue with him far into the future.
However, Wolff has also just promoted a new driver, Kimi Antonelli, to be his teammate and has been vocal about trying to snatch Max Verstappen from Red Bull Racing.
If that happened, one of Mercedes's 2025 drivers—Antonelli and Russell—would have to go. That leaves Russell in a tough spot.
Red Bull's team principal, Christian Horner, lately decided to shake things up a bit by suggesting that his team consider Russell an option for the future. He told Sky Sports F1:
"We're not afraid to go out of the pool. George Russell is out of contract at the end of the next year. It would be foolish not to take that into consideration."
George Russell after winning the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix
This puts pressure on Wolff to sign Russell earlier and leave Verstappen. But is Red Bull really interested in the British driver? Helmut Marko addressed this situation, as he told Motorsport-Total:
"George Russell is as fast as, if not faster than, Hamilton in qualifying. But George Russell is of the Mercedes brand."
"I think for now, we are going to focus on our juniors. Look at Colapinto. A relatively inexperienced and not very successful guy in the junior series. I must also say that he has never had the best teams. He has done an incredible job. Now we are going to see what our juniors can do."
Franco Colapinto joined Williams Racing to replace Logan Sargeant after the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix. In the following three race weekends, he scored P12, P8, and P11 - incredible results for a Williams driver, especially for a rookie.
Red Bull has just replaced Daniel Ricciardo with Liam Lawson. The team from Milton Keynes also has drivers like Isack Hadjar, who is currently second in the F2 Championship and competing for the title.
With Ricciardo replaced, Red Bull clearly signaled that they plan to give rookies more chances in the RB / VCARB F1 team. Can any of Red Bull's rookies get to the level where the team doesn't need to look outside their pool at drivers like George Russell?
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